Category: #Bitcoin Quotes

Running bitcoin – Hal Finney

Wonder In Peace Bright Mind

Join Honorary Chair Fran Finney and the Running Bitcoin Challenge Committee as we honor legendary cypher punk, Hal Finney.

This is THE EVENT that combines Hal Finney’s love of running and Bitcoin and is raising funds and awareness to help defeat ALS, which ultimately claimed his life in 2014.

You are challenged to run (or walk, roll, or hike) the equivalent of a half marathon — cumulatively or all at once — by the end of January 10, 2023.

From wherever you are, spread the word about Bitcoin, participate in a healthy activity, feel good about doing your part to defeat ALS, and start the year off right

Hal Finney, one of the earliest bitcoin contributors, died eight years ago from complications of nervous system disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

His spouse, Fran Finney, is now organizing a half marathon to raise funds for ALS research via bitcoin.

The โ€œRunning Bitcoin Challengeโ€ is set to take place between Jan. 1 and Jan. 10. The timing of the occasion leads up to the anniversary of Hal Finneyโ€™s โ€œRunning bitcoinโ€ tweet, in which Finney famously disclosed he was deploying a Bitcoin node.

There is no set location โ€” participants can choose to join anywhere they wish. Players are encouraged to either run, walk, roll or hike the equivalent of a half marathon (Halโ€™s favorite distance) either in one go or over the entire 10-day period.

Donors contributing at least $100 will receive an official shirt with the half marathonโ€™s logo, while the eventโ€™s top 25 fundraisers will get a Hal Finney collectible signed by his wife.

As of Wednesday morning, the event has already managed to secure nearly $10,000 in bitcoin donations.

An advocate of cryptography and digital privacy, Finney was the recipient of the first-ever bitcoin transfer from the networkโ€™s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

The bitcoin community often suspected Finney was Nakamoto, a claim he consistently denied. He reportedly found out about his condition in 2009 and decided to move away from the project.

Halโ€™s name is high in the Bitcoin pantheon as one of the first people to voice support for Satoshi Nakamotoโ€™s invention and for being the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi.

He was, for a time, considered one of the top contenders on the list of potential Satoshis himself (many in blockchain who reject Dr. Craig Wrightโ€™s statements still falsely believe Finney to be Bitcoinโ€™s real creator).

Hal, who referred to himself as a โ€œcypherpunk,โ€ was a cryptographic activist who went from developing video games to working on the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) project in the 1990s. He described his PGP work as โ€œdedicated to the goal of making Big Brother obsolete.โ€

PGP creator Phil Zimmerman hired Hal as his first employee when PGP became PGP Corporation in the early 2000s. He described Hal as a โ€œgregarious manโ€ who loved skiing and long-distance running.

Despite gradual paralysis that eventually forced him to stop working, Hal continued to code software and follow the Bitcoin project.

Almost as famous as his 2009 tweet is his โ€œBitcoin and meโ€ post on BitcoinTalk.org in March 2013, the last heโ€™d ever make.

Itโ€™s a long post, and Hal was โ€œessentially paralyzedโ€ at the time, using an eye tracker to type. Forum stats show the post has been read over 278,000 times.

โ€œWhen Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away,โ€ he wrote. โ€œI think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test.

I carried on an email conversation with Satoshi over the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing them.โ€

Hal himself always denied being Satoshi Nakamoto, adding later that heโ€™d sold most of the Bitcoins he mined (at pre-2014 prices) to pay for his treatments. He also mentioned putting some in a safe deposit box for his children.

โ€œAnd, of course, the price gyrations of bitcoins are entertaining to me.

I have skin in the game.

But I came by my bitcoins through luck, with little credit to me.

I lived through the crash of 2011.

So Iโ€™ve seen it before.

Easy come, easy go.โ€

Hal Finney
www.runningbitcoin.us
Admiration and great Respect
With ๐Ÿงก

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Totalitarian Governments..

Totalitarianismย is aย form of governmentย andย political systemย that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual opposition to theย stateย and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control and regulation over public and private life.

It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form ofย authoritarianism.

In totalitarian states,ย political powerย is often held byย autocrats, such asย  dictatorsย  andย absolute monarchs, who employ all-encompassing campaigns in whichย propagandaย is broadcast by state-controlledย mass mediaย in order to control the citizenry.

It remains a useful word but the old 1950s theory was considered to be outdated by the 1980s,and is defunct among scholars.

The proposed concept gained prominent influence in Western anti-communist andย McCarthyistย political discourse during theย Cold Warย era as a tool to convert pre-World War IIanti-fascismย into post-warย anti-communism.

Leaders who have been described as totalitarian rulers, from left to right and top to bottom in picture, includeย Joseph Stalin, formerย General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union;ย Adolf Hitler, formerย Fรผhrerย ofย Nazi Germany;ย Augusto Pinochet, formerย Presidentย ofย Chile;ย Mao Zedong, formerย Chairman of the Communist Party of China;ย Benito Mussolini, formerย Duceย ofย Fascist Italy; andย Kim Il-sung, theย Eternal President of the Republicย ofย North Korea

As aย political ideologyย in itself, totalitarianism is a distinctly modernistย  phenomenon, and it has very complex historical roots. Philosopherย Karl Popperย traced its roots toย Plato,ย Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel‘s conception of theย state, and the political philosophy ofย Karl Marx, although Popper’s conception of totalitarianism has been criticized in academia, and remains highly controversial.

Other philosophers and historians such asย Theodor W. Adornoย andย Max Horkheimerย trace the origin of totalitarian doctrines to theย Age of Enlightenment, especially to theย anthropocentristย idea that:

“Man has become the master of the world, a master unbound by any links to nature, society, and history.”

In the 20th century, the idea of absolute state power was first developed byย Italian Fascists, and concurrently in Germany by a jurist andย Naziย academic namedย Carl Schmittย during theย Weimar Republicย in the 1920s.

Benito Mussolini, the founder of Italian Fascism, defined fascism as such: “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

Schmitt used the termย Totalstaatย (lit.โ€‰’Total state’) in his influential 1927 work titledย The Concept of the Political, which described the legal basis of an all-powerful state.

Totalitarian regimes are different from otherย authoritarianย regimes, as the latter denotes a state in which the single power holder, usually an individual dictator, a committee, aย military junta, or an otherwise small group of political elites, monopolizes political power.

A totalitarian regime may attempt to control virtually all aspects of social life, including the economy, the education system, arts, science, and the private lives and morals of citizens through the use of an elaborate ideology. It can also mobilize the whole population in pursuit of its goals.

Definition

Totalitarian regimes are often characterized by extremeย political repression, to a greater extent than those of authoritarian regimes, under an undemocratic government, widespreadย personality cultismย around the person or the group which is in power, absoluteย control over the economy, large-scaleย censorshipย andย mass surveillanceย systems, limited or non-existentย freedom of movementย (the freedom to leave the country), and the widespread usage ofย state terrorism.

Other aspects of a totalitarian regime include the extensive use ofย internment camps, an omnipresentย secret police, practices ofย religious persecutionย orย racism, the imposition ofย theocraticย rule orย state atheism, the common use ofย death penaltiesย andย show trials, fraudulent elections (if they took place), the possible possession ofย weapons of mass destruction, a potential for state-sponsoredย mass murdersย andย genocides, and the possibility of engaging in aย war, orย colonialismย against other countries, which is often followed byย annexationย of their territories.

Historianย Robert Conquestย describes a totalitarian state as a state which recognizes no limit on its authority in any sphere of public or private life and extends that authority to whatever length it considers feasible.

Totalitarianism is contrasted withย authoritarianism. According to Radu Cinpoes, an authoritarian state is “only concerned with political power, and as long as it is not contested it gives society a certain degree of liberty.”

Cinpoes writes that authoritarianism “does not attempt to change the world and human nature.”

In contrast,ย Richard Pipesย stated that the officially proclaimedย ideologyย “penetrating into the deepest reaches of societal structure, and the totalitarian government seeks to completely control the thoughts and actions of its citizens.”

Carl Joachim Friedrichย wrote that “[a] totalist ideology, a party reinforced by aย secret police, and monopolistic control of industrial mass society are the three features of totalitarian regimes that distinguish them from other autocracies.”

Visualization of the AES round function

Advanced Encryption Standard

Theย Advanced Encryption Standardย (AES), also known by its original nameย Rijndaelย (Dutch pronunciation:ย [หˆrษ›indaหl]), is a specification for theย encryptionย of electronic data established by the U.S.ย National Institute of Standards and Technologyย (NIST) in 2001.

AES is a variant of the Rijndaelย block cipher developed by twoย  Belgianย  cryptographers, Vincent Rijmenย andย Joan Daemen, who submitted a proposalto NIST during theย AES selection process.

Rijndael is a family of ciphers with different key and block sizes. For AES, NIST selected three members of the Rijndael family, each with a block size of 128 bits, but three different key lengths: 128, 192 and 256 bits.

AES has been adopted by theย U.S. government. It supersedes theย Data Encryption Standardย (DES), which was published in 1977.

The algorithm described by AES is aย symmetric-key algorithm, meaning the same key is used for both encrypting and decrypting the data.

In the United States, AES was announced by the NIST as U.S.ย FIPSย PUB 197 (FIPS 197) on November 26, 2001.

This announcement followed a five-year standardization process in which fifteen competing designs were presented and evaluated, before the Rijndael cipher was selected as the most suitable.

AES is included in theย ISO/IECย 18033-3ย  standard. AES became effective as a U.S. federal government standard on May 26, 2002, after approval by the U.S.ย Secretary of Commerce.

AES is available in many different encryption packages, and is the first (and only) publicly accessibleย cipherย approved by the U.S.ย National Security Agencyย (NSA) forย top secretย information when used in an NSA approved cryptographic module.

Andreas M. Antonopoulosย (born 1972 in London) is a British-Greek Bitcoinย advocate, tech entrepreneur, and author.

He is a host on theย Speaking of Bitcoinย podcastย (formerly calledย Let’s Talk Bitcoin!) and a teaching fellow for theย M.Sc.ย Digital Currencies at theย University of Nicosia.

Antonopoulos was born in 1972 in London, UK, and moved to Athens, Greece during theย Greek Junta.

He spent his childhood there, and at the age of 17 returned to the UK.

Antonopoulos obtained his degrees inย Computer scienceย and Data Communications, Networks and Distributed Systems fromย University College London.

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All Credit goes to Andreas M. Antonopoulos

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